Geez I hope that non-natives don’t use this example for courage.
https://youglish.com/pronounce/courage/english
It was the first example I clicked on and it’s clearly someone else speaking that word with her own accent.
Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
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Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#292As a non-native English speaker, the "randomness" of English pronunciation has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I realized there are two types of issues: 1. Some sounds in English don't exist in other languages and you have to learn them "from scratch". For example the "flap T" in butter. Or the particular American "r" (constrast it to the Spanish rolled r for instance). 2. Certain sounds I DID kno…
The main issue really is that there are no rules for pronunciation. It's not as bad as reading Chinese (as far as I understand - I tried to learn for a month and gave up :)), but in the same direction going from a language like Turkish or Spanish that are mostly WYSIWYG - the glyphs in the word don't actually tell you how to pronounce it properly.
My all time favorites are the words that are literally spelled the the same but pronounced differently, for no reason - like "wind".
Or, similar but again pronounced differently - thought, through, though, tough - why are these like that? No (good) reason.
And names, too. Worcester, guess how that's pronounced? :)
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#293Geez I hope that non-natives don’t use this example for courage. https://youglish.com/pronounce/courage/english It was the first example I clicked on and it’s clearly someone else speaking that word with her own accent.
As a non-native, the fourth video is the weirdest one, much more different than the others, including the first. Sounds like "coureege".
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is no such thing as "English pronunciation". English does not have a regulatory body like Spanish or German have. Well well... as it is called English, scholars from cultural institutions rooted in England are the reference. Everybody else is free to speak their own language, but one is proper English, while the others are at most somewhere -English.
That’s a particularly bad example, as accents vary more within England than in most other English speaking countries. Cockneys and Geordies sound nothing alike and there is no way to have unified and consistent spelling between them.
I think they might be referencing recieved pronunciation?
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is no such thing as "English pronunciation". English does not have a regulatory body like Spanish or German have. Well well... as it is called English, scholars from cultural institutions rooted in England are the reference. Everybody else is free to speak their own language, but one is proper English, while the others are at most somewhere -English.
That’s a particularly bad example, as accents vary more within England than in most other English speaking countries. Cockneys and Geordies sound nothing alike and there is no way to have unified and consistent spelling between them.
"Scholars from cultural institutions rooted in England" is different from "the first person crossing the street in a random English town".
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#296As a non-native English speaker, the "randomness" of English pronunciation has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I realized there are two types of issues: 1. Some sounds in English don't exist in other languages and you have to learn them "from scratch". For example the "flap T" in butter. Or the particular American "r" (constrast it to the Spanish rolled r for instance). 2. Certain sounds I DID kno…
We get annoyed about having to learn genders of words in other languages. It's just so silly! Then you remember that millions of children pick it up every day. Nothing in language can actually be hard. It just takes enough practice to start thinking like a native. But note I said practice, not repetition. You have to want to do it correctly. If you have an ear for correctness you will get there.
Native children spend thousands of hours learning language. Just because a child can do it through some of the greatest effort of their lives at that point doesn't make it easy surely?
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not true. I use stress timing without even realizing that I'm using it nor understanding what it means, but I can realize when someone doesn't use it. I learned it purely by ear, by mimicking the sounds other people make. More specifically, by copying their cadence.
Yeah, like I said, it's most unlikely that you're using vowel length correctly. You can't copy something you're not aware of. For example, without looking it up, would you say 'quit' and 'quid' are pronounced with the same vowel length or not?
"Quid" is longer.
>You can't copy something you're not aware of.
If that was the case, babies would not be able to learn how to speak.
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The English spelling is guided by meaning As a native Italian, I'm convinced that using the Latin alphabet without embracing phonetic spelling can only be driven by idiocy ;-)
And that's why the Italian alphabet comprises tʃ, dʒ, ɲ, ŋ: so that no letter is ever associated with two different phonemes!
You are partially right in that Italian is not perfectly phonetic, but it's in such a different league from English that (100% - Italian) is a rounding error with respect to (sanity -English) ;-)
Still, Italian is still perfectly phonetic in writing: can you imagine never having to ask how to spell a town name, or a family name? Can you imagine a word where spelling bees do not exist because they could make no sense? If you hear it, you can spell it.
By the way, your example of "tʃ, dʒ" is spot on, as in you cannot guess how a Z character is to be read, but in practice very few people ever notice. Concerning "ŋ", I think only Italian linguists know about it as a separate phoneme.
You are wrong, instead, about "ɲ": "gn" is always pronounced as in "gnocchi".
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't worry; English pronunciation can be mastered simply through tough, thorough thought. (English "o" is tons of fun-- of the 22 vowel sounds listed on the English orthography page on Wikipedia, only two can't generally have the letter "o" involved.)
The Chaos (1922) - http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html More than half of my life lived in English-speaking countries does not help quite enough to avoid a migraine with this one.
>Made has not the sound of bade
Doesn't it though?
Re: Use YouTube to improve your English pronunciation
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no such thing as "English pronunciation". English does not have a regulatory body like Spanish or German have. There are many English dialects, and sounds (and meanings) vary, A LOT. It's up to you whether you want to try and assimilate the local dialect of where you live right now, or you want to simply understand and be understood. There are many non-native speakers who are extremely easy to understand, ev…
>The human mouth is capable of pronouncing all human sounds, it is only a matter of practice. This is only partially true: the language a person speaks affects the development of facial muscles used to make those sounds. So trying to speak a different language that uses different muscles can be very difficult. Of course, as you said, it's a matter of practice: with enough practice, you can develop those muscles, just…
This is 100% correct. Muscles that aren't used in your mouth/articulators (because your native language doesn't require them) atrophy over time. It is possible to strengthen these muscles with isolated practice -- on BoldVoice we have coach videos where they give you "reps" of muscle movements (such as 20 tongue-ups). We call it "a gym for your mouth" :D It's hard work, but it's the best way to get results.